Blaze a trail to Castle Street for M&S party

Opening of M&S store in Princes Street, Edinburgh, in 1957.

A special four-month food tour of five Scottish locations visits the city centre on Saturday, with celebrations taking place in Castle Street from 10am to 5pm.

Shoppers are invited to join customers and colleagues past and present at the Festival of Food, where they will be treated to free food tastings and a demo kitchen, as well as face painting and shortbread decorating for children.

Midlothian-based M&S producers Old Curiosity Distillery will showcase its amazing colour-changing gin and brand new non-alcoholic G&T, with talks and tastings. Visitors will also be offered smoked salmon and smoked trout from seafood producer Dawnfresh.

The very first M&S opened in Dundee in the autumn of 1918. One hundred years on, M&S now serves two million customers a week across Scotland and employs 6500 people.

M&S Princes Street opened 61 years ago in June 1957.

Edinburgh store manager Jenny McPartlin said: “We can’t wait to welcome the Centenary Taste Trail to Edinburgh. It’s such a great way for both our colleagues and customers to come together and celebrate 100 years of M&S in Scotland and 60 years in Edinburgh.”

The taste trail will profile M&S partnerships with over 40 Scottish suppliers and 4000 Scottish farms, while exhibiting never-before-seen archive photography of local communities, specially commissioned by the M&S Archive.

Hamish Martin, founder of Old Curiosity Distillery says: “We’ve been trading for less than a year and M&S was one of the first outlets to stock our innovative gins. We’ve received a fantastic reception from Scottish customers.

“So we are really excited to be involved in the Centenary Taste Trail and get the chance to explain the inspiration behind our products that started life in our Secret Herb Garden in Midlothian.”